Seeing Discipleship

Speaker: Pastor Raleigh Sims


Scripture Focus: Mark 10:46–52


Service Summary: In the first stanza of the hymn
“Amazing Grace” we confess, “I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see!” (LSB 744). When we say we were lost, we
may think of the parable of the prodigal son. We mean that apart
from God, like the rest of the world, we do not truly know our
real spiritual need. Likewise, the blindness we confess is our
condition apart from the enlightenment of God’s word and
deliverance. Blind Bartimaeus in today’s Gospel, by the
enlightenment of God’s Word, believed that Jesus as the “son of
David” is the divine agent, the Son of God come to save. He had
heard through Isaiah the prophet that one of the first things the
Messiah will do would be to open blind eyes (Isaiah 35:5). With
this blind man, we come today with the heartfelt prayer “have
mercy on me” and discover more. Our eyes are enlightened to see
God’s mercy as we join this man and Jesus’ disciples following
Him in the way, on the road to Jerusalem. There we discover the
mercy and gracious reign and rule of God in the mighty suffering,
death, and resurrection of our Lord of life.